I know the world is a bigger place but it seemed as if all eyes were centered on the World Trade Center Metro Manila this week for the AsiaPop Comicon. The buildup for the event reminded me of an ever fluctuating stock market that had fans either lauding the AsianPop organizers for their vision and ambition or vehemently striking them down for not being able to come through with announced guests like Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones, Aquaman in the highly anticipated Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice), Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill, Marvel’s Agent Carter), and Bill Goldberg (WWE, Checkpoint The Movie).

Despite these setbacks, perennial Manila traffic, and the poor weather; the proverbial ‘Con was On’ and we punched our ticket for Day 2 of the AsiaPOP Comicon. #AntFam arrived sometime after lunch and made our way to the Pinoy 501st Legion’s[i] Star Wars booth for a photo with a couple of their members who were dressed as a Stormtrooper and a Jedi. Even R2-D2 got in on the fun.

Other notable attractions included a black 1982 Pontiac Trans Am that literally brought a nostalgic tear to my eye. It was THE car of my generation–The Knight Industries Two Thousand (K.I.T.T.)! A relic by today’s standards, I remember Michael Knight being able to play with an Atari console in that thing. Jeez, now my age is showing. Anyway, they also had a HUGE Ironman Hulkbuster which you could climb into for a photo opportunity. However, the process involved buying a t-shirt worth P250 which seemed simple enough except that the line was just so long that I decided to pass on it.

Fight Club 2
For those of you that know me, I’m one of the biggest Fight Club fans out there. So when I heard that Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk was going to come out with a sequel to his 1996 novel in comic book form, I said to my local comic book proprietor, “Take my money!”

Now back to the present. It turns out that among the many AsiaPop’s international comic guests was Fight Club 2’s cover artist David Mack. I had brought along my Fight Club 2 issues [#1-#4] which Mr. Mack graciously signed. I was also hoping that he would be willing to sketch for a minimal fee but alas I couldn’t meet his commission price[ii]. David Mack also shared that if he were to do a piece, “I would need to come back the next day” as he would only start working on it in the evening.

Next to David Mack was another David in David Yardin. An equally talented artist who was also nice enough to sign my convention program. Yardin had a number of prints and comic book pages for sale in his table and when I inquired how much his pages were, he said, “depends on which one.” I then pointed to the one in front of me–a nice clean page that featured Wonder Woman promptly in almost every panel. “How much is that one?” I asked.

David Yardin replied without missing a beat, “600…US.”

Wow.

I am in the wrong line of work.

Thank you for your time and talent Amanda, Chris, and J*Ryu!

Memorable moment

Be it out-of-town trips, watching movies, or reading books. One always has a memorable moment. Conventions, seminars, and workshops are no different. Each has their own unique story. Mine was my short interaction with several of the Vinyl Toy Guests in Jesse Yu (J*Ryu) and the team of Amanda Louise Spayd and Chris Ryniak. The three were not only engaging but were nice enough to share their talent as well as their time.

On a personal note, I guess the greatest compliment that I can give the three of you is that should it ever happen that I find myself on your side of the table, I plan on giving that person in front of me the same quality moment that you gave me.

Oh and Jesse, if you ever get to read this, I really appreciate you calling Daryl and I ‘cool parents.’

Final Grade

The AsiaPOP organizers deserve a medal for the effort they put into this convention. It could have ran a bit more smoothly in my book but I would just chalk that up to growing pains.

An “A” then for the effort guys. Nice work.

Looking forward to the next one in 2016.

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[i] The Pinoy 501st Legion is a non-profit, non-stock volunteer organization that raises funds for charity through their love of everything Star Wars. You guys rock!